STICKER ART - FREEBIE

Good Morning, All!  Keeping my two or three day old promise, I'm here bright and early to bestow yet another FREEBIE on y'all.  But first . . .

As the month of May comes to a close, it's nice to reflect by photos just what went by in a fast blur, right?  It just so happened that this past Friday's episode (5-25-12, which you can buy separately still) of PhotoShop Friday 2012 over at Jessica Spague provided me the perfect template to document just that, and I got 'er done!  I went over-board and filled up all the blocks with photos which, of course, you don't have to do; but I had taken a lot this month, so why not?  I'm so enthused with this template and background paper which is marked off with the little squares that I'm vowing now to make one of these layouts for each month for at least a year!  It's kind of nice to see what went on during the month at one glance.  Here's my layout . . .

The flowers bloomed, I made lots of food, we gathered gourds for crafting, we played together, I received Mother's Day gifts, saw two of my grandbabes in their school's musical, crocheted a baby afghan for my new neice, celebrated birthdays for my DH and DD, looked at a house for sale, planted some roses, watched gymnastics, and played word games!  Whew!  Busy month, quick month!  Cool page!  Maybe my next one won't be so full and I'll be able to show you one with a few blocks empty or containing some pretty digital papers.  The light tan "inset paper" above is provided with the template, along with all the elements you see.  You just add your text for month and date, and take off with your photos.  I made a few labels and wrote on a few of my photos, but this is so small you probably may not be able to see that here.  If I print this at 8 x 8 inches or 12 x 12 inches, it will be lovely!  Ok, just wanted to share!

And here is one of my Memorial Day Tribute pages for this year . . .

The blue paper, center USA element, the "always" and the "remember" letter block graphics, and the frames are from K. Pertiet at Designer Digitals; 4 red papers were used from Merry Christmas Kit by Echo Park of Jessica Sprague, and Design House Digital's "All American Alpha" is by Karen Funk.  That's my Dad on the left when he was an Air Force Flight Instructor during WWII, and my brother on the right who is career Army.  It was such a pleasure to construct this page yesterday.

Alrighty then, time for your FREEBIE.  Awhile back I played wild and free in my PSE and came up with a bunch of sticker designs, so I'm sharing a few.  Below is a pack of 8 pngs at 300 dpi.  You can easily size them larger or smaller, add shadows, and so on.  I've called these "Sticker Art_Set 1" since it's a varied mix.  Hope you can enjoy and use.  Leave me some love if you download and let me know if you have a favorite.  Here's the preview . . .

DOWNLOAD HERE OR HERE

Alas, that's it from me today.  My DH is off for two days, and I know he'll keep me hopping most of the time.  Enjoy the sun and heat.  We are forecasted rain to arrive, but they've missed it so far!  LOL!

TOOTLES!!

FREE MEMORIAL DAY WORD ART

Hi Peeps!  Hope you had a wonderful relaxing Memorial Day today and perhaps shared it in the company of family or friends. 

I wanted to give you a digi-scrap gift today and was planning on a set of stickers.  Then as I sat in front of my computer in PSE in my reflective mood today, it occurred to me that I should be giving you something a little more appropriate for today.  I come from a long family full of men who have served in every branch of the Armed Forces; some of whom were lost during World War II, missing in action, a husband now deceased who served in Vietnam and was wounded only one week after landing there as a Marine.  I remember talking with him by way of a "ham radio" from the hospital he was taken to in Guam at that time and how he sounded sure that he would never see home again.  He was patched up in the hospital and a week later he was back on the front lines in Nam where he finished his 13-month tour of duty, mostly living underground where he served as a Fire Direction calculator.  One week after he arrived home to the USA, the hill he had been living under over there was blown off the map.  The survival stories he did share with me were horrifying, and I remember how he would jump awake from his sleep at night and sit straight up in the bed in a cold sweat.  Though he mostly recovered from his physical injuries and learned to live with the residuals, I don't think he ever recovered mentally from the experience. 

My mother's brother served in the Air Force during World War II, and was reported Missing In Action to the family back home.  He was just a young man, very handsome, and very patriotic.  He had another brother, six sisters, and loving parents to get the news of his disappearance.  There was sketchy news that perhaps his plane had gone down over the Mediterranian Sea, some reports of a few survivors on a life raft, then nothing more.  My mom told us the stories of how her mother went to bed and didn't get up for months on end, she didn't want to live.  When she did get back to trying to live, she looked for his face everywhere, thinking that maybe they were wrong, maybe he survived and had amnesia, maybe she would find him someday.  Probably thinking along those lines would be the only thing that would keep a mother drawing her next breath.  I can understand that having lost a child of my own. 

My mother's sister's husband (my uncle by marriage) had served in WWII and was taken as a POW spending a long time in a prison camp.  When he came back to the USA finally, he was never the same.  He had been severely malnourished and tortured, and his nervous system was ruined for life.  I can remember how my aunt always kept her meals on a strict schedule for him, and she delighted in being an excellent cook so he would never again be hungry.  She even grew the most gigantic garden annually in our town.  It was all for him because she loved him so. 

My father's three brothers served in different branches, and my dad was in the Air Force during WWII.  He taught soldiers to fly the B-52 bomber planes.  One of his sisters was also an Air Force Flight Instructor, and the both of them carried planes full of soldiers across the ocean to war.

All of my male first cousins served in the military, and I still have two in active duty today in the Navy.  I've marveled in my life at them flying and landing those strange looking jets on carriers that seem so small in the ocean.  One says he is getting ready to retire, and the other is still in but won't speak of what he really does.

My brother made a career of the Army and traveled far and wide, sometimes not able to talk about his jobs.  There were times we really didn't even know where he was at all.  He has now retired and has since taught ROTC to highschool boys, still wearing full military dress to work.  He is retiring from that this June and will be free for the first time in his life.  I expect he will not know what to do with himself, and that will be a huge adjustment for him.  I'm glad he is retiring as I've been afraid he would drop over from stress before he enjoys any peace for himself.

I went to highschool with boys who went to Vietnam and never returned home.  Their names are now on the Memorial wall.  I wrote letters to most all of them I knew at the time just so they would have mail from home at mail call.  Mom and I would bake and send them boxes of goodies to eat. 

As an adult woman raising my children, I've lived in neighborhoods and watched my neighbors' sons grow up, join the military and become part of Special Forces and Navy Seals. 

It just goes on and on, so I will stop lamenting about it here.  I just wanted to tune you in to my reflective mood today as I created this FREEBIE word art for you.  This is another one of my "interrupted" or "divided" words, and this one reads "Remember", "that our freedom is not free".  I hope you will use it to scrap one of your Memorial Day tribute pages.  I did one today.  This is a png at 300 dpi, so you can use it in most any program, and you can resize it, recolor it, and even clip papers to it for lots of different looks.   Here is the preview . . .

DOWNLOAD HERE OR HERE

Aren't those some pretty cool fonts?  Leave me some love if you download.  I really enjoy your input.  I also have the stickers I promised ready now, so do check back in the morning for those.  Meantime, take care!

TOOTLES!

NEW KIT + FREE QUICK PAGE

My good friend, Maurine Stettler of LET ME SCRAPBOOK, has graciously allowed me to do a little guest CTing for her with her new brand new kit titled "It's Time To Say I Love You" available in her shop at The Studio!  Here's a peek at her kit which is 30% off right now!  Be sure to check out her store link above to see all the extras to go with this kit!

This kit is loaded with tons of beautiful papers and adorable elements to scrap with!  Maurine is also featured in The Studio's current Designer Challenge, and you can pick up her FREE abundant Add-on to this kit for free just by using it to scrap up a page of your own!  Take a look at this!

And here's a look at some extras available for this kit,

Her Creative Team has been busy having a blast designing with all this, and if you hop around to their various blogs, you can help yourself to some wonderful FREEBIES they have designed.  Here are a couple of links to get you started on your way . . .

Maurine's Blog

Tammy's Blog

Jenny's Blog

And now, here's the preview of the Quick Page I made for you . . .

and finally a closer look at the blank Quick Page . . .



DOWNLOAD HERE OR HERE

Oh last, but surely not least, busy Maurine also hosts the monthly Recipe Card Challenge which takes place in the forum challenges at The Studio!  Check it out!  She stays ahead of us with a monthly Recipe Starter Kit, which is FREE if you have participated in the previous month's challenge.  At the end of the month, just for submitting one recipe card designed with her starter kit, you receive a bundle of high resolution, printable recipes submitted by all the participants!  I have used these to print, slip in a photo album, and give as a wonderful gift!!  You can check out what's going on in the Recipe Card Challenge Gallery!

Have a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend, my friends.  Check back in the morning for another FREEBIE from me just because it's a holiday!

TOOTLES!

FREE STEAMPUNK QUICK PAGE

I'm back with another FREE Quick Page for you!  It's contest time over at Cool Scraps Digital, and this month we got to work with a very cool kit called "STEAMPUNK" by EMS Arts.  For those of you always looking for something ecclectic, romantic, yet more masculine; this kit may well be the one for you.  It's full of fun elements to play with, lots of rust and grunge, and lovely rich looking papers.  I'm personally going to work from this kit much more and will also collect the over 50+ QP contest entries so I have a fantastic QP Album ready to scrap quickly.  I look forward to this contest each month, it's so much fun to be involved in it!  It's really a well-greased affair!  Below is my preview . . .

and here is a closer look at just my empty Quick Page . . .

and lastly a look at my completed layout using my QP . . .

My QP is a 12 x 12 inch, 300 dpi png format.  You can easily size this down to an 8 x 8 inch if you prefer that size without any loss of quality.

DOWNLOAD FROM BOX HERE, OR FROM 4SHARED HERE

If you like this, leave me some love and then hop on over to the CSD QP Contest Gallery to collect the rest of the pages.  They will all be posted by midnight of May 31st, so collect away!  Direct download links are supposed to be provided in three places; the gallery descriptions, the official QP contest forum thread, and each particpants blog or facebook page.  You may have to search for a few, but it's surely worth it!  Steampunk is really a super kit!

I hope to be back soon with some freestyle design freebies I've made for you!  Stay tuned. 

I have my fingers in a lot with the coming of summer, and I'm sure you do also.  Have fun, enjoy the good weather, and check in here often to see what's new!

TOOTLES!

FREEBIE - MAY PAPERS

Happy month of May!  So much going on with the onset of warm weather, right?  I've made a conscious effort to NOT live on my computer and get outside to enjoy things and get some much needed exercise!  Been walking a mile in 20 minutes on my indoor treadmill three or so times weekly during winter, but I can take myself outdoors until winter comes again.  My grandkids are in T-Ball, baseball, soccer, and gymnastics; and I'm a spectator in the stands.  My DH's birthday was the 8th, so last Sunday when all could gather we had a family cookout to celebrate his birthday.  My DD has one coming up on the 22nd.  Planning a pool party/cookout for that one.  I've had my outing for Mother's Day already with my DD as she will be at the Darlington races on Sunday, and I have a job to perform from 7 am to 1 pm on Sunday that will preclude any fun early in that day.  We just have to work around the things that must go on, but we do manage to work it all in.  Our mothers' gifts and cards are in the mail, hopefully to be delivered today since we live a good 8 hrs. away.  They are 84 and 74, going strong, and we are so lucky!

I have just now put the finishing touches on another paper pack FREEBIE for you all, my MAY PAPERS.  This pack has 7 backgrounds, all 12 x 12, 300 dpi, jpgs.  As always, these are PU/S4H/S4O.  I tried my hand at making them a little more on the artsy side, so I hope you like that.  I took an Art Journaling class a while back over at Jessica Sprague.  It was loads of awesome fun and more freestyle than I've been used to.  I need to get into that more often!  It's very liberating to just ACT like an artist!

Here's the preview . . .

and here is a closer look at the May text paper which inspired this pack . . .

DOWNLOAD AT BOX OR AT 4SHARED

Don't forget to leave some love if you download my freebies.  Also, unzip your file right away as I have a May discount coupon in it to my Etsy store if you're interested in browsing through my handcrafts.  I have to work on those store listings today as they have just recently expired.  I'll have it restocked in a matter of hours today.  Been crafting on some yummy new stuff too! 

Also going to work on my "Pages" here and get some layouts posted for you to see in case you're in need of inspiration.  I always get a few pages scrapped through each week, but I'm not so good at getting them up here on the blog so you can see them as I used to be.  Will be working on that until your next freebie is ready.

Had a busy chore day yesterday, so simply going to do some plant repotting today and tinker in the flower beds.  Have a good one!  Check back soon!

TOOTLES!